More things to love about Dominica

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This last 3 weeks have just flown by, and one of the best things is that we just keep finding more and more lovely things about living here. The whole village seems to have taken us under their wing. Everyone is genuinely friendly and very proud that we love Dominica. Toucarie is a quiet spot and being on the Caribbean side of the island we avoid all the wild weather of the Atlantic side. The bay is just perfect even though the sand seems to have been replaced with pebbles during hurricane Omar. There are no nasty sea urchins - just lots of lovely colourful fish and coral so it’s really easy to swim in the bay.

The week of tiling was a bit stressful - but all finished and looks great. The best bit was sleeping on the deck for a week. After the tiling disruption we slowed down a bit for a few days - went snorkelling in the champagne bubbles in Toucarie bay. It truly is like something out of Disney swimming through hundreds of bubble streams coming from the seabed. Amazing.

The garden is coming on great. Son has chopped down more trees and opened up our view of the bay. He has planted lots more flowing bushes and trees around the garden. Also he made Kate a covered kitchen garden - it looks like something out of Robinson Crusoe. We now have lettuce/tomatoes/basil/chives/cabbages/parsley and other stuff growing, and according to Son - ‘evry livin ting’ grows in Dominica.

Last week we drove across the north of the island to explore. The views across to Guadeloupe and its satellites Marie Galante and Iles des Saintes were stunning. We also drove through the dead volcano that is the mountain backdrop to Toucarie - Morme aux Diables (Devil’s Mountain).

We met a lovely couple - Georgia and Arvil - and had a night out at Thanksgiving and then met them for lunch. Hoping to catch up again around Christmas time, when they get back from Antigua.

Home baked bread is still fantastic - much to the frustration of Rita our friend who has tried ‘evry livin ting’ to make her bread rise which still comes out like a doorstop! Talking of food, what a great experience it was to visit the street market in Portsmouth - 8 huge oranges for £1 and 20 bananas for 25p.

Our neighbour killed his Pig last weekend so we bought some meat off him. Kate struggled a bit with the reality and smell of it all and, even after it had been cut up into supermarket type fillets, struggled with eating it. We have a chicken on the way next - a gift from Son. We even know which one it is - the big black one - not sure how Kate will cope with that. What a Shirley!!

Sunsets are still amazing - what more can we say - another Pina Colada!

Varnishing has become a marathon for Kate whilst Andy is still playing at plumber, electrician and general builder.

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